Network Seems Slow.

[Namtaro]

Hello, I have a Windows XP box that I just made that houses a bunch of harddrives used for a media/file server.

I'm not sure of the write speeds before, but it seems really slow now... The motherboard (Asus P5K) has a Gigabit network card inside so I expected to be around 70-80MB/s at the very least...
When I transfer a file from the box to any of my other computers/laptops the speed is always 80+MB/s.

Problem is when I'm writing to the box.. I get maximum 20-30MB/s... sometimes even going down to 10MB/s.

I've tried a whole bunch of things so I'm hoping you guys can help!

The harddrives inside are 5400RPM WD Green drives. While they're not the fastest drives, I'm pretty sure their write speeds are not 20MB/s.

 

[matthelm]

I have something like that. (not that many dives, but the basic setup) Max you can get out of XP is about 80, without some "real" hardware. You can get 60-70 easy.

First, buy an Intel NIC for every machine unless the built in one is Intel!!! (PCIe if you have PCIe slots) (please note, I am NOT an Intel fan boy, but their NICs rock!

Second, Buy a HP switch. Procurve 1410-8G Switch is the one I use. This solved a bunch of XP/W7 issues I had.

Then read the "tweaks" from the DIY area.

 

[Namtaro]

I'm looking into buying an Intel NIC right now.

One thing about the switch... I'm using my Router (RT-N66U) so I don't believe I'll need a switch correct? Or would a switch improve performances?

 

[stevech]

The RT-N66U says it has gigE LAN ports.

But I prefer to keep intra-LAN traffic on good switches and use ports on WiFi routers only for 10/100. Probably overkill, but switches are low cost now.

I have 4 or so gigE switches in my LAN - been there a long time. Two Fry's store brand 5 port - long lived, run cool; one Netgear consumer 5 port- no issues. And I just bought semi-used on eBay, a Netgear GS108E lightly managed switch - like $70 or so used - it's great. I got it as it can do port mirroring/monitoring. Has VLANs and QoS but I don't use that.

Prior to these, I had two Gen-1 gigE consumer switches: Linksys and D-Link. Both ran hot, both failed in 1-3 months. The D-Link had bulging capacitors in that short of a time (!). Today's switches have better chips, run cooler.

 

[thiggins]

Look at the XP performance info and see if there is a process eating up CPU.

Also is e drive you are trying to write to filled most full? Is it a RAID volume or single drive?